Manufactured Homes Appeal to a Wide Range of Demographic Groups
A study by Foremost Insurance Company showed that the average manufactured homeowner is 49.9 years old. However, today’s high-quality affordable homes appeal to a wide range of demographic groups. The following three groups and their motivations for choosing modern manufactured housing are summarized below.
“Baby Boomers”
“Baby Boomer” – (aka Generation X – born between 1946-1964). This generation makes up a substantial portion of the world’s population. It represents 21.9% of the population in the U.S. These are senior citizens who desire to downscale the size of their homes. A large percentage of these retirees purchase manufactured homes for placement in senior communities that are designed to satisfy a safe comfortable lifestyle with the social activities that encourage interaction with others of the same interests and age.
Baby boomers are perhaps the biggest advocates of manufactured home ownership and tend to be very involved in encouraging other seniors and friends to join in this ideal lifestyle, and are appreciative of the customization aspects of today’s new manufactured housing.
As life expectancy continues to increase, this demographic group will continue to be an ever-growing market for the manufactured home industry.
“Empty Nesters”
Empty Nesters are those who also want to downscale the size of the home, but often for other reasons. These are couples in the 45 to 60 age group whose children have grown into adults and have left the family home to create their own families – leaving mom and dad living in a larger home than they need or want. Empty nesters are usually still working and want to eliminate the upkeep expenses of a home, energy costs, property taxes and are looking forward to being in a financial position to retire comfortably when the time arrives.
Many in this group sell their existing home and use the proceeds to purchase a new manufactured home as a second home, or vacation home with land, in a location with the intent for use as their permanent home upon retirement. Some even locate their new manufactured home in adult-only manufactured home communities or “own your own” land manufactured home developments.
“Entry Level” or “First-Time Buyers”
The Foremost study also found that 59% of manufactured households have no children, and the average size of manufactured home households is 2.7 persons. This counters the belief of some planning and zoning commissions that manufactured homeowners have more children and therefore will add to local school overcrowding. This unfounded notion has led to the disallowing of manufactured housing in some urban communities. However, over the last few years, some states have passed legislation making it illegal to discriminate against manufactured homes.
The bottom line is that the “affordability factor” of manufactured homes gives many families the chance to join the ranks of homeowners for the first time and therefore, increases the overall homeownership rate in the community. That translates into more tax revenue and economic vitality for local governments.
Families have been the “heart and soul” of factory-built manufactured/mobile homes for over 50 years. Today’s new manufactured homes are a great option, especially when considering the savings in energy cost, fire safety, and the ability of a home to match a family’s wants and needs. All that and the fact that a new custom-built manufactured home is “everything a home should be” and meets all the criteria of homeownership, including quality of construction and appearance, and will have a cost of about 50% less than a comparable home built on site. A manufactured or modular home attached to real property is eligible in most situations for mortgage financing equal to a traditional site-built home.
In recent years the manufactured home has become the home of choice of single adults new to the job market and newly single dads and moms starting over.
In conclusion, it can be said that manufactured homes have something for everyone and are truly the realization of the uniquely American Dream of Homeownership for all demographics.
